POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
238 
the first living aerial engine-driver. He is at once intelligent, instructed, 
and experienced, — sufficiently bold, but by no means reckless. 
The number of ascents recorded is eight, and the average time in the 
air in each case was under two hours. The extreme height reached was 
above 30,000 feet ; but there are no means of telling how much higher the 
balloon rose, as in this ascent Mr. Glaisher was, unfortunately, insensible 
from cold and exhaustion, during the critical time, and Mr. Coxwell was 
little better. The season of all the ascents was autumn, the dates ranging 
between the 18th August and the 8th September. The rate of ascent and 
descent was various, but sometimes extremely rapid, amounting to several 
thousand feet in a few minutes. The number of observations required to 
be made almost at the same moment, during the whole ascent, is enormous, 
but they seem to have been made with certainty, and without incon- 
venience, except at extreme elevations. 
The conclusions arrived at, though only partial, were interesting and 
important ; but they require confirmation and comparison with those made 
at another period of the year. The observations will probably be repeated 
in the spring of next year, and the results will be looked forward to with 
great interest at the Newcastle meeting. 
Mr. Glaisher’s account is graphic in the extreme, and the effects he saw 
on some occasions, when the balloon rose above a mass of clouds into the 
clear blue vault of heaven, are described as altogether surpassing in 
grandeur and beauty any cloudsc-apes visible from terra firma. This part 
of his narrative has, however, been frequently quoted in the daily news- 
papers and weekly journals, and need not be repeated. 
Among the scientific results obtained by these balloon ascents are the 
following : — 1. There seems no wind blowing steadily with any uniformity 
of direction in the upper regions of the air over our island at any height 
yet reached. 2. The clouds do not seem to form according to the contour 
of the land, but do seem to follow the tide up the great rivers. 3. The tem- 
perature not only does not decrease regularly as greater height is attained, 
but, in some cases, a very low temperature was attained near the earth, and 
was succeeded by much warmer air at a far greater elevation. 4. The 
aneroid barometer may be used with advantage, and may be depended on 
to any attained height. Mr. Glaisher states that it is available to a 
pressure of only five inches of mercury. 5. The humidity of the air 
diminishes rapidly, and at a height of five miles is extremely small. 
Several suggestions were made by various members in reference to aerial 
navigation generally, and the whole subject was recognized as of the 
greatest importance. 
Memoirs were communicated on Climatology and Meteorological Instru- 
ments by Mr. G. J. Symons, Mr. Plant, Professor Ansted, Dr. Gladstone, 
Mr. Galton, Mr. Lowe, and other members. Some of these were of much 
interest, but we have not space to allude further to them. Mr. Lowe’s 
paper on Ozone was especially valuable, and included the description of a 
new Ozone box, showing some interesting results. 
The structure of the sun’s surface and the volcanoes of the moon were the 
subject of several communications. Mr. Nasmyth pointed out some recent 
observations tending to prove that the sun’s nucleus is dark and dense ; 
